Fellowship Bible Church, Tacoma - Weekly Sermon

You've been given a new life in Jesus. So now you need a new look to go along with it. Not the old look of living in anger, lust, restlessness for stuff you don't have - but a new peace in your heart and peace with other people that comes from knowing how much God loves you and accepts you through Jesus. The end result? A new life, with a new look, that ends up looking like Jesus himself - a whole...

In Jesus, we are totally secure. In Jesus, we are radically free. Those two ideas form the pillars of Paul's argument in Colossians 2:16-23. So then when someone tries to tell us otherwise ("no, you have to eat these certain foods..." or "you have to say these certain kinds of prayers"), we will know to ignore them and shrug it off. The ultimate result? A community of people who are the most secur...

In this text, Paul gives two commands: walk in Jesus, and watch out for false teaching. As motivation for both of these, Paul invites his readers to ask a question: do we know how much we have already been given in Jesus? Defeating evil powers, giving us new life, inviting us in to a whole new family, wiping away, forever (!), every sin we've ever done...this text is like a rich gospel buffet from...

Church is a place of suffering, service, and toil. Paul doesn't downplay this reality. In Colossians 1:24-29, he leans into it, describing clearly the cost of his commitment to the church of Jesus. But he also shows us the glory. If you're a person who's getting burned out on church, or even considering giving up church altogether due to discouragement, or hurt, or whatever - this is the passage f...

There's one clear theme for today's section in the Colossians: the unrivaled supremacy of Jesus. In Colossians 1:15-20, Paul shows how Jesus is Lord of Creation and New Creation and everything in between. But this isn't just abstract theology. It's exultation. It's poetry. And Paul's hope is that by seeing the glory of Jesus, we'll be spurred on to deeper devotion and abiding joy as we look forwar...

What does the flourishing Christian life look like? And where does it come from? In Colossians 1:9-14, we get to hear Paul's prayer for the Christian community in Colossae. Along the way, we'll get some healthy reorientation regarding what "our best life" looks like and discover how the basis of our ongoing wellbeing is found in knowing God.

In this kickoff to our Colossians series, we take a close look at Paul's opening word of the letter. In them, we find not just valuable info regarding the context (setting, history, purpose, geography, etc.) - we also find valuable info about ourselves. Who does God say we are as followers of Jesus? What does it mean to be a community of "saints"? And "brothers"? As we explore this, we begin to ge...

In Joshua 23, we listen in on part one of Joshua's farewell speech to the leaders of Israel. His main point? Same as what we hear from the Apostle John fourteen centuries later: "Little children, guard yourselves from idols." We'll hear both the warning and the exhortation from Joshua to back up this command, and then we'll consider how God uses suffering in our lives to expose our idols and help...

What happens as we come to see God as fully trustworthy? Not just "trustworthy" as an idea, but as an abiding, bedrock conviction of the heart? Joshua 21 gives one of scripture's clearest declarations of God's trustworthiness. In the sermon today, we'll see God's how God's trustworthiness is demonstrated in the text, then we'll reflect on how this truth shapes our response to idolatry, mission, an...

In these instructions regarding cities of refuge, we see a reflection of God's heart for both justice and mercy. This text serves as a helpful corrective, since we often struggle to consider what is truly fair and right in any given situation - and likewise also tend to evaluate justice and mercy by the wrong criteria. Ultimately, these instructions point us to the fullest expression of both God's...

How can we know that God is for us? In Joshua 11:1-12:24, we see the spectacular results when God fights for his people. We also get a preview of the assurance we can find in Jesus our Servant, Jesus our Warrior, and Jesus our Sacrifice - who himself is the ultimate proof that God is for us.

Is anything too hard for God? This is the question raised by our extraordinary passage here, where God not only defeats a massive coalition of enemy armies - but stops the sun and moon in the process. We'll consider how the doctrine of God's omnipotence provides the basis for mighty acts like this, and then reflect on how the knowledge of God's power leads us to worship, prayer, and trust in Jesus...